I'm loving knitting Birch...but I got sorta geeky with it yesterday.
But, first, distraction!
Pretty Picture!
And a Close-Up!
That color... just doesn't scream "drab" to me... (OK. So its olive drab. Still)
However... I'm nervous. I've been a bit nervous since I had to rip out my first start (gauge too large. Very sloppy looking), and lost a few yards of yarn. I had read of people running out, or using all three balls. I had balanced that with people using only 2.5 balls. However, my gauge still may be a bit loose, which adds back into my anxiety.
I have 3 balls of KidSilk Haze.
Then, I read Annie's post about her (lovely) finished Birch. When she revealed that she had used every scrap of her 3 balls, that brought my anxiety to high boil. I went on the attack - spreadsheet time! Math. Reasoning. Fun!
First, I calculated how many of the Birch motifs the completed shawl is. (485). (30+29+28...+2+1)
Then, I figured out how many motifs I have left after each pattern repeat is done. That wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I figured out for each completed pattern repeat how many motifs I have knit. (1st - 30. 2nd - 59, etc). Then I divided 485 by 3 (155) to find out where I need to get with each ball to not run out. Seems like I need to get half-way through the 7th repeat (between 145 and 165). I'm halfway through the sixth, and getting very nervous about the amount of yarn left...
Fortunately, my LYS is holding a 4th ball of yarn for me :) In the right dyelot - which is part of the reason I wanted to know now. Since I bought the yarn a couple weeks back, there was a strong possibility for another ball if I called soon, but I don't want to buy a lone skein of KidSilk Haze for no reason. (yes, they'd take it back. But I've never returned a ball of yarn in my life.)
So, that's how I got geeky with Birch. (no black hole yet)
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